Mike Kern, Author of Science Fiction and Fantasy

Tag Archives: thalamus

Kira’s fever spiked over 106 before she died. That was when Anne started screaming. I heard them outside the room, trying to calm her down. When I finally was able to bring myself to open the door, Jennie and Bree were keeping Anne back as Alex and Rich brought the body out.

The eyes were wide open. I’ll never forget what I saw in them, what was happening to them. It was like dropping a dark liquid into a lighter liquid. The darker liquid begins to draw itself out, seeping towards the bottom with long, sinewy tentacles. That was what was happening with Kira’s eyes. This black ichor was seeping its way in from the corners, wriggling like something alive.

They were becoming like those other dead men.

I stood with Jennie while Alex and Bree worked. Anne should have been the one to really do the autopsy but she was in no state of mind for it. Jennie grasped my hand the whole time and I held on firmly, too afraid that if she let go I’d turn away and run back to the room. I’m such a coward. Poor Anne just wants to see her, keeps screaming that she’s still alive.

I hope she’s wrong. I saw Kira’s dead eyes and that blackness wriggling through. It’s the ichor from the brain stem, I’m sure of it, and the thalamus and hypothalamus controls a good deal of the body’s primal functions, but nothing happened. She just died. Yet something is still happening in that body. Alex doesn’t understand it either.

They didn’t die from radiation poisoning, Alex confirmed that. They killed one another. There was foreign blood in the corpse’s teeth and skin and blood beneath his nails. Those rends we saw in their bodies? Those were done with human hands.

He also found something else: a foreign protein in the blood. According to Alex it didn’t match a single known entry in the computer’s database. What’s worse is the body’s immune system was suppressed to a point where it was practically destroyed. He thinks it happened rapidly, maybe over just a few days.

There was something else too. Just above the brain stem, a tumor grew right into the thalamus and hypothalamus. Unlike the other tumors in the body, it wasn’t filled with blood, just this protein and a black, inky fluid.

I watched from beyond the screens of Quarantine, feeling sick to my stomach as apprehension took hold. One of those tumors burst on Kira. This morning she had a fever of 102F. Those corpses killed each other. I couldn’t help but think of Kira doing the same and so I ran, ran back to my quarters and sealed the door.

That was hours ago and Alex must have told the others. Now there are noises in the hallway. People are shouting, voices angry and scared at the same time. I can’t make out their words because I can’t bring myself to approach the door.

Sarah. It’s so stupid but she’s all I think of now. I close my eyes and there she is, walking away and I’m too afraid to reach out and stop her. The shouting is worse and I can’t go out to help. I just can’t.